Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A revanchist person; occasionally, anyone seeking vengeance.
  • adjective Seeking revenge or otherwise advocating retaliation, especially against a nation which has previously defeated and humiliated the revanchist party in war. Originally referred to the French indignation over losing Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From revanche +‎ -ist. Compare later French revanchiste.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word revanchist.

Examples

  • "One last thing, I'll refuse to spell the word revanchist with a u in the middle, and I shall pronounce it accordingly, whenever I manage to wedge it in conversationally, just to earn the consternation of my peers."

    "A humiliated, decimated GOP that rejuvenates and rebuilds around the principles of limited government, free markets, and rugged individualism..." Ann Althouse 2008

  • One last thing, I'll refuse to spell the word revanchist with a u in the middle, and I shall pronounce it accordingly, whenever I manage to wedge it in conversationally, just to earn the consternation of my peers.

    "A humiliated, decimated GOP that rejuvenates and rebuilds around the principles of limited government, free markets, and rugged individualism..." Ann Althouse 2008

  • McCain is fiercer still: he has said he wants to kick Russia out of the G8, and called Putin a "revanchist" who has committed "nuclear blackmail" and "cyberattacks" to revive Russian power.

    Campaign Diplomacy: Why America May Take A Harder Line Against Russia 2008

  • My advice, if you permit, would be to consider avoiding succumbing to the natural human proclivity towards racism or even "revanchist" actions (for past, historically racist transgressions made by other groups - which you call "whites") and thereby refraining from posting entries - using strong language - just against any other outside groups indiscriminately, without solid considerations ...

    Home 2009

  • My advice, if you permit, would be to consider avoiding succumbing to the natural human proclivity towards racism or even "revanchist" actions (for past, historically racist transgressions made by other groups - which you call "whites") and thereby refraining from posting entries - using strong language - just against any other outside groups indiscriminately, without solid considerations ...

    Home 2009

  • My advice, if you permit, would be to consider avoiding succumbing to the natural human proclivity towards racism or even "revanchist" actions (for past, historically racist transgressions made by other groups - which you call "whites") and thereby refraining from posting entries - using strong language - just against any other outside groups indiscriminately, without solid considerations ...

    Home 2009

  • He is fought to a standstill by revanchist forces, which prevent any more reform.

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

  • "K144" appears to be the invention of the Belgrade media, which regularly whip up nationalist and revanchist passions.

    Smearing Hashim Thaci Denis MacShane 2011

  • The hope that a revanchist Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, will support a tougher stance against Tehran assumes that Moscow shares the West's view that a nuclear Iran is against its interests.

    A Blow to Obama's Russia 'Reset' James Kirchick 2011

  • But by the time revanchist nationalism peaked in the late 1990s, the troops were already out of the Baltics, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, and the potential for troublemaking was correspondingly smaller.

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "Even Russia, the most aggressive and revanchist great power today, has done little that compares with past aggressors."

    --Fareed Zakaria, "The Post-American World," Newsweek, May 12, 2008, 29.

    May 15, 2008

  • a term used since the 1870s to describe a political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war. Revanchism draws its strength from patriotic and retributionist thought and is often motivated by economic or geo-political factors. Extreme revanchist ideologues often represent a hawkish stance, suggesting that desired objectives can be reclaimed in the positive outcome of another war.

    -wikipedia

    August 30, 2009